More and more of our interactions, both personally and with companies, are happening online these days. Lockdown aside, there has been a growing trend for a while in terms of consumers engaging increasingly with brands and businesses online rather than in person.
This is only likely to become more prevalent as we move forward following the Covid-19 pandemic and the extended period of lockdown that we’ve found ourselves in.
Now is therefore the perfect time to look at your business’ website and see whether there are any improvements you could make. In particular, you could look at how web designers in Surrey can help you improve user experience through your web design.
An article for SmartBrief recently shared a range of tips on how to do exactly this, starting by optimising the speed at which your homepage loads.
It cited data from Google, which shows that users are 32 per cent more likely to bounce straight away from your site if the amount of time it takes for a page to load climbs from one to three seconds.
It’s important to remember that many people are impatient, especially when it comes to the likes of technology and the internet. That means they want – and expect – websites to load as fast as possible.
From a design perspective, this means you need to optimise your website’s code, minimise the size of the images you’re using and compress any elements that you can.
Accessibility is another big consideration and one that consumers have come to expect. This means thinking about how you can make sure your site is accessible to those with disabilities, such as people using screen readers.
There are many elements of user experience that also translate into improved conversions for your business, serving a double purpose. For instance, making sure that you have clear calls to action (CTAs) dotted throughout your site is essential.
You have to make it as easy as possible for people to complete transactions with your business, or to get in touch with an enquiry if that’s the action you’d like them to take.
Ease of navigation around your website also ties in closely with this. You need it to be simple and quick for people to find what they’re looking for, whether that’s a product to buy or information about the services you provide.
One of the keys is getting the structure right, with the news provider noting that this should be “clear and predictable for faster results”.
If you’re using an external payment platform for your website, you should do your research and think carefully about which option you choose to ensure that user experience isn’t compromised at a crucial point in the transaction.
An article for Customer Think recently offered some advice about what you should look for in a payment platform. Firstly, try it yourself to make sure that the interface is easy to use. If you have difficulty making a payment, then chances are so will your customers.
You should also look for a platform that allows you to customise and brand the bills or receipts it sends out so that your customers can clearly see that it’s come from your business and won’t mistake this communication for spam.
